American culture has changed to be more accepting of women playing sports. "I think people see it as being healthy, being fit, being active, and I think that is a great reflection that our society is changing. And sports, I think, helps us (women) get out and do things and be more productive citizens in the big world. This year we'll probably (have) more women than men in the workforce, and our lives are changed." VanDerveer says fathers are "huge" in the struggle for equality for their daughters because they're saying, 'My daughter's not going to ride on that rickety bus,' 'My daughter's not going to practice at 6 in the morning when the boys have the 2 to 7 P.M. slot in the gym. And it's parents, both mothers and fathers, saying, 'Let's be fair to our daughters.'" VanDerveer goes on to say, "It's great to see young girls and young women play sports. It's a part of their life. And I think that young girls do not understand that sports was not a part of...our older life. When we've had our basketball camp and I'll have 50 eight-year-olds in the audience I'll talk to them about the fact that I never went to basketball camp, I never played basketball in junior high or high school. There weren't scholarships for women to go to college. And so after giving this spiel (from) my soapbox, one little girl raises her hand and says, 'Why not?' And I said, 'Well, can anyone else answer this question?' And another eight-year-old girl raises her hand and says, 'Sexism.'"
UCLA's coach Caldwell says that women coaches can help women players in ways that male coaches cannot. "We always say we're coach last. I think when you're a young girl, whether you play sports or not, you go through those puberty and adolescence issues and things like that, so we're easily able to relate, and when they have breakups and their boyfriends aren't being a great boyfriend, we're easily there to say to them that we've been there, we've been in your shoes. And they understand that, so I think they are more prone to confide in us." Caldwell adds, "When you think of it we wear a lot of different hats. We play the role of their mothers at time or best friend. We just be whatever we have to be to them. So I think the Number One thing is that we can relate (and say) 'I've been in your shoes. I've walked the same path as you've walked. And to me, that is a great way for us to open up our communication."
Caldwell stresses that a good coach is as involved in a player's academics as in her court play. "They're of equal importance and if I feel like the academics is suffering then I will remove basketball because you (the player) are going to get your degree." She recalls, "I'm from a household where my mom stressed going to class and I adopted coach Summit's policy of 'You miss a class, you miss a game,' and it's been very effective in just letting the young ladies know why you're here. You are here to get that degree and along the way we're going to play a little basketball, hopefully win a championship, and we're going to remember all the experiences that we had while we were in college."
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(Sherwood Ross is a Media Consultant to MSLAW)
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